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Welcome to Axios.org.

We are an organization of Eastern & Near Eastern Orthodox, and Byzantine & Eastern-rite Catholic LGBTQ lay Christians with a 30-year-old history of service in California.

Our site was recently hacked so we are in the process of reconstructing and making it mobile friendly. Please be patient.

Gay Welcoming Orthodox Communities in California

If you are visiting the San Francisco bay area, you might like to visit Saint Seraphim Metokian Skete in downtown Hayward, CA. Father George would be happy to chauffeur you from the downtown Hayward BART train station to our chapel at 9:45 am on Sunday. Also feel free to contact Father George at (510) 538-1210 or to just chat about LGBT Orthodoxy.

What About Orthodox and Catholics Together?

Let's face facts. There are still some Roman Catholics who think that Orthodox Christians are heretics and schismatics and not part of the Church. There are also some Orthodox Christians who think that the Roman Church is no church at all. But the history of Axios, through suffering, has proven that LGBT Orthodox and Catholic Christians are inclined to be radically hospitable toward each other and also to the few Anglo-Catholics left. After all, we continue to worship God in his Real Presence.

A helpful philosophical distinction for us to make is the difference between the formal and material mode. The Real Presence is a formal doctrine held by all the ancient churches. But materially, we have different ways of acknowledging the formal doctrine.

Some reformers came up with the thought that the consecration was just a memorial so the bread remained bread and could be tossed back into the bread basket after communion.

Others thought that the presence of God was not objective but instead was effected by the faith of the communicant. In that case, the remaining bread ought to be consumed, and not placed back into the bread basket, only out of some sort of discipline or respect for the past tradition.

However, all the ancient Church jurisdictions take our Lord's words literally. We see a permanent transformation of the bread into the Presence of Christ, His Holy Body, and Precious Blood. Any of the remaining consecrated elements must be reverently consumed or prepared for the sick or for a future Communion, a process called Reservation. Devotion to the Blessed Sacrament may seem unique to the Latin Rite. However, Eastern Orthodox Christians serve a Pre-sanctified Liturgy during Lent which is basically a vesper service. Here the previously sanctified Holy Body and Precious Blood are carried in procession and is served to the faithful.

The main purpose of the Meetup group is to make good friends and to locate safe Orthodox and Catholic communities to worship God together.